The lives of women
By: Christine Dwyer Hickey
Publisher: Atlantic Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
ISBN-13: 9781782390053; 9781782390060
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Social conditions; Women; Fiction; Suburban life; Reminiscing
Description: Following a long absence spent in New York, Elaine Nichols returns to her childhood home to live with her invalid father and his geriatric Alsatian dog. The house backing on to theirs is sold and as she watches the old furniture being removed, she is taken back to a summer in the 1970's when she was almost sixteen and this small out-of-town estate was an enclave for women and children while the men are mysterious shadows who leave every day for the outside world. The women are isolated but keep their loneliness and frustrations hidden behind a veneer of suburban respectability. When an American divorcee and her daughter move into the estate this veneer begins to crack. The women learn how to socialise, how to drink martinis, how to care less about their wifely and maternal duties.